License Plate Light Bulbs. LED?

T4RSpectreSix

T4RSpectreSix

New member
Hey all,
Just did a walk around of my truck tonight and realized my rear license plate bulbs are getting to be a bit dimmer than I'd like. I've already got a pair of OEM grade replacement bulbs in hand, but I am somewhat curious if anyone here has toyed with the LED bulbs out there that are compatible with our trucks.

I know they are supposedly brighter, and if you get ones with the correct light disbursement, they are supposed cover the plate pretty well. The only reason I know this is because I had some on my previous car and they worked out alright for that application, but that vehicle had one central bulb and it was directly over the plate.

Anyone have any experiences with this on their 4Runner? I'm kinda curious if anyone out there is running these, and if so, if they can give some advice on / photos of these bulbs.

Thanks in advance guys.
 
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Check out mine:
hidoutput007ug8.jpg
 
I have them as well adn think they work well. I replaced the interior dome lights, door lights, and license plate lights with LEDs for about $40 or so if I recall adn like the look better. Much more crisp lighting and more visible as well.
 
what size bulb is in the license plate socket? where did you get those led's for your licence plate? what bulb size?
 
Very nice looking illumination on the plate. I could definitely go for those. Are those from autoillumination.com or another source?

I think I will definitely buy up some of these and get them on there within the next couple weeks, that's just a really nice look - looks like the Lexus plates I see all over here.

I know you can get these bulbs on eBay (though i've heard the quality is mixed), autoillumination.com, superbrightleds.com, and v-leds.com - anyone have any recommendations for their supplier?

My owner's manual for my '04 says License Plate bulbs are #168.
 
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I took Sheezy's advise and went the same route, except I put these in:

2 HID WHITE SMT 5 LED LIGHT BULBS 194 168 158 2821

The way they the bulb is mounted, with this bulb you actually get 4 Diodes on the plate instead of 2.

I thought they would be too bright but they actually turned out perfect

WORDS OF ADVISE.... Order all of the LEDs for your car at once. i have paid for shipping three times because now I have an addiction!!!
 
Did anyone have any problems with the leds saying you have a burnt out bulb. the site (http://www.superbrightleds.com) recomend you buying Load Resistors to solve the problem. are they needed or just a scam. Did anyone replace their DRL'S with an l.e.d.?? how does it look?
 
donnie15 said:
Did anyone have any problems with the leds saying you have a burnt out bulb. the site (http://www.superbrightleds.com) recomend you buying Load Resistors to solve the problem. are they needed or just a scam. Did anyone replace their DRL'S with an l.e.d.?? how does it look?
Click to expand...

You need the load resistors if you're replacing any of your turn signals, otherwise it'll cause them to blink rapidly because the system thinks a bulb is out and if prolonged with the rapid blinking it could cause the flasher to fail prematurely. It's not needed (or a problem) replacing the interior, running board or license plate lights with LEDs.
 
Im gonna do the rear license plate for now. I really wanted to do the drl's to be different because ever t4r i see still has orange. I think some blue or yelklow leds would look sick for drl's. Everywhere i look people have different bulb sizes for the drl's though. Does anyone know a deffinite fit? Some people say 3157, 4157, or 7443 and i dont wanna get the wrong size. :sobbing:
 
donnie15 said:
I think some blue or yelklow leds would look sick for drl's.
Click to expand...

Check your local and state laws. I believe blue are reserved for police vehicles only. In CA, it's a citeable offense.
 
Yeah, I know the laws are definitely worth investigating before you buy.

I checked the local laws here in WA state and it states that the license plate must be illuminated by a white light, and that blue and red lights are only allowed for gov. vehicles beyond your red tail lights.

I think anything extremely close to white, even if it has just a tiny bit of a blue tint would be ok, but you never know, what looks bright white to one officer looks blue to the next, so I played it safe and ordered the ones that were pure white.

I'll post pics when I get them installed.
 
Fosheezy have you had any problems with those going out on you? I have used a couple different brands and they have all started flickering and died out after a month or two. At $5.00 a piece, i've been getting a little pissed about it.

If you've had real good luck with the V-LEDS.com bulbs, i'll give them a try.
 
Ryan32 said:
Fosheezy have you had any problems with those going out on you? I have used a couple different brands and they have all started flickering and died out after a month or two. At $5.00 a piece, i've been getting a little pissed about it.

If you've had real good luck with the V-LEDS.com bulbs, i'll give them a try.
Click to expand...
I had many problem with bulbs from www.autolumination.com But then I started buying from www.v-leds.com and I haven't had a problem since then! So I'd definitely recommend them over any other site!
 
what do you guys think about hyper white leds for the drls
 

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Alright, so I said I would post a pic of the LEDS once they arrived, so here goes:

LicensePlateLEDS.jpg~original


A friend of mine that works at a parts store said he could hook me up with these at cost and so I ended up going with the PIAA Super Bright LEDs.

So far they look really nice in person. I may need to take another photo because in retrospect, blurring the plate no. (pointless) made the plate darker. This photo is really dark and doesn't show how bright they actually are since my cam isn't designed for low light picture taking (Fo_Sheezy obviously has a better camera than I do!), but you get the idea - you can get a feel for their intensity if you take a glance at the tail lights - they're definitely a "pure white" shade and really don't exhibit any blue tint in person - the plate has blue in it though, so that's something to take into account in the photo.

Next up: OEM LED tails.

Thanks all for the advice and info, appreciate it.
 
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Looks good! Now you should upgrade all you interior lighting to LED as well. I actually ordered all my LED's for the inside tonight, here's what I ordered:

Six 194's (4 door lights & two map lights):
4481133


Two Ultra Thin Dome Lights from Oznium.com:
2092.jpg


Two Mirror Lights:
4481128


One Glove Box 74:
6298403
 
Yeah, you know I was looking at my door-mounted "courtesy" lights and thinking they definitely need an upgrade, as it is they are so dim they cast almost no light on the ground at all.

Those bulbs you ordered look pretty good, I'm gonna check those sites out and see what I can come up with.
 
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